L-DOPA (), also known as levodopa () or L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine is an amino acid that is made and used as part of the normal biology of humans, as well as some animals and plants. Humans, as well as a portion of the other animals that utilize L-DOPA in their biology, make it via biosynthesis from the amino acid L-tyrosine. L-DOPA is the precursor to the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine (noradrenaline), and epinephrine (adrenaline), which are collectively known as catecholamines. Furthermore, L-DOPA itself mediates neurotrophic factor release by the brain and CNS. L-DOPA can be manufactured and in its pure form is sold as a psychoactive drug with the INN levodopa; trade names include Sinemet, Pharmacopa, Atamet, Stalevo, Madopar, and Prolopa. As a drug, it is used in the clinical treatment of Parkinson's disease and dopamine-responsive dystonia.
L-DOPA has a counterpart with opposite chirality, D-DOPA. As is true for many molecules, the human body produces only one of these isomers (the L-DOPA form). The enantiomeric purity of L-DOPA may be analyzed by determination of the optical rotation or by chiral thin-layer chromatography (chiral TLC).